The Turkey and Taturs Trail Race takes place on Turkey Mountain in Tulsa, Oklahoma and consists of 3 race distances: 50K, 25K, and 10K. With less than 150 participants between all 3 races, it is not a large race. Hosted by the Tulsa Area Trail and Ultra Runners (TATUR), the local trail running club, the races were well-organized but still managed to maintain a casual, relaxed atmosphere.

The first major hurdle you will encounter running any distance at Turkey and Taturs is finding the starting line. Even as a long-time Tulsa resident, I only knew of the YMCA from running other races at Turkey Mountain. Not wanting to run 3 miles to the starting line, I had to do the Google Maps click of shame to lookup driving directions. The YMCA sits at the Southeast corner of the I44 and Highway 75 interchange on a little road called Olympia accessed by Skelly. Once you’re there, though, you really can’t tell you’re within a stone’s throw of 2 major thoroughfares.

The races started at 30 minute intervals with the 50K at 6:30, 25K at 7:00, and 10K at 7:30. I arrived around 6:15 because it was my first time doing a TATUR race and because I never made it to Runners World Tulsa for packet pickup prior to race day. Parking was sufficient, but we were all cycling through 2 porta-potties (assuming there weren’t open YMCA restrooms I didn't notice) so it was nice to get there a bit early to wait in line.

Timing was done with a ChronoTrack B-Tag, a very small tag affixed to the back of the race bib. Why is this important? A few of the races I’ve run recently have used other bib timing chips, and they’re far too big. I like to wear my bibs on my shorts, and with some of the other technologies, that just doesn’t work well.

The 50K started a few minutes late, and even with the time change, it started in the dark. That made me a bit nervous about starting the 25K in a few minutes, but the Internet swore up and down the sun would be up before 7:00 AM. Fortunately, the Internet was right, and I didn’t have to go running off into Loose-Rock Mountain in the dark.

If you are not from Tulsa or have not had the pleasure of running trails at Turkey Mountain, there’s one important thing to keep in mind. Turkey Mountain is technical. I’ve honestly run and hiked very few trails other than Turkey Mountain, but between those other trails and some wasted hours on Youtube, I can confidently state that Turkey Mountain is one of the more challenging places you will ever run. It’s admittedly more of a hill than a mountain, but what it lacks in altitude, it makes up for in attitude. And just when you think you’ve found some nice, smooth running surface, BAM! Stink Plant.

Aid stations show up about every 3 miles during the race. The route is organized so that you revisit the same stations multiple times permitting you not to carry your own fluids and fuel if that is your preference. The race instructions still encouraged bringing at least a water bottle in case you needed something in between. Restrooms were found at the start and near 17K and 20K. If nature calls in between, nature is available but mind the critters when you step off the trail.

This was my 3rd trail race on Turkey Mountain in 2014, and I spent the better part of the Spring and Summer alternating trail and road running every week. I have a route I like to run that includes some of the most challenging portions of Turkey Mountain, but it is often augmented by my amazing ability to take a wrong turn on the West side trails. I mention this because I want you to get a feel for how much time I’ve spent at Turkey Mountain. It’s obviously less than your average TATUR member, but it’s enough to have seen a healthy portion of what Turkey Mountain can throw at a runner.

So, believe me when I say this: the Turkey and Taturs route was HARD. I’m honestly not sure how you make a route at Turkey Mountain much more difficult without running a couple of the more challenging areas multiple times. TATUR, however, managed to map out a route that never used the same trail twice for the 25K, and the 50K was 2 loops on that same course.

The YMCA sits at one of the lowest parts of Turkey Mountain. As soon as we left the starting line, we started to ascend to one of the higher elevations of Turkey Mountain, and the reward we received once we reached that elevation? We got to run all of Power Line save Lip Buster. Power Line is so named because it’s a path cut through the woods for power lines that separates the East and West trails. It starts with the aptly named Lip Buster, the steepest, longest hill at Turkey Mountain and continues on for 3 or 4 more rolling hills. The rolling hills after Lip Buster are not all that bad on the way up, but on the way down, you’re dealing with loose rock and gravel on top of solid rock. May the odds of staying upright be ever not in your favor.

From Power Line, the route turns East to more familiar territory for most runners weaving a path back and forth parallel to the Arkansas River. Most of these trails are well worn and familiar save one tiny little path that I dare not call a trail. It happened to be a descent, but it was so small and technical, I couldn’t pick up the pace much. Beyond that, I had to backtrack for a lost piece of gear on this tiny trail. The fact that I found the gear was a miracle, but let’s move on ahead.

Stink Plant! Yes, after the tiny trail you get the real Turkey Mountain experience on the Yellow Trail just above the sewage treatment plant. This is one of those parts of Tulsa of which all Tulsans are quite proud. </sarcasm> Oddly enough, this is the most scenic part of Turkey Mountain. It doesn’t take long to leave the Stink Plant behind and parallel the now visible Arkansas River while running through the woods with a variety of interesting rock formations along the way. You can also run a good portion of this section pretty fast if your legs didn’t die on all of the hills. Just remember to lift your feet higher than you think necessary for the roots. I swear they jump up out of the ground to trip runners.

From there you come out to the main Turkey Mountain parking lot and run down a steep paved trail section to enter the Red Trail on the South side of Turkey Mountain. There’s not much to tell about the Red Trail except that you need to watch out for cyclists. There are jumps and banked turns going the opposite direction which wouldn’t be fun if you ran into a cyclist at the wrong time. I found 3 myself, but I was still in the grasses where they weren’t going too crazy. There was also a guy on a road bike which I still can’t quite figure out. Maybe I was so weary I was hallucinating.

So around the 20K mark, you finally get to run it…Lip Buster. I said run, didn’t I? I didn’t mean run. I’m sure some masochist out there ran Lip Buster at 20K, but not me. No, I stumbled and slipped my way up Lip Buster. I usually take pride in being able to run Lip Buster, but this day, I took pride in not falling on my face and busting…my...lip. Ooh, I get it now.

The last 5K of the race should have been easy, but I struggled with it. TATUR found some of the more technical sections in what should have been a nice, slow descent into the YMCA so I spent more time twisting my ankle and slipping than I did running. The appearance of 50K runners also slowed me down a bit as I was concerned I took a wrong turn. It turns out they were running their second loop of the 25K course in reverse. This is probably the only time in my life I’ve ever been happy a competitor passed me. Confirmation that I was still going the right direction was very helpful.

At the end of the race, 10:23 pace was enough for a mid-pack finish. On the roads, I could run this distance even with significant elevation changes in around 8:10 pace at the time of the race. I maintained 9:45 pretty consistently until I broke down in the final 5K. The paces ranged anywhere from 7:06 (yeah, seriously) to 20:00 for the 25K and only slightly slower for the 50K. I’m pretty sure Mr. 7:06 was an alien so prepare appropriately if you decide to run this race.

As for the food and the swag, I don’t much run for those, but I kind of like the shirt. The medal will work to sit with my other medals. It may not weigh 5 pounds and shimmer, but it still represents possibly the toughest race I’ve ever run, marathons included. Unfortunately, my health issues prevent me from touching any of the food or drinks during or after the race. The water was excellent, though. I can’t recommend the water strongly enough.

Needless to say, I highly recommend this race and most any at Turkey Mountain. It's a completely different experience from big road races and even the larger, shorter trail races I've done at Turkey Mountain.